San Simeon Lodge

The hotel is clean the room is decent size and the staff is friendly. The best part was wakkng up and looking at the incredible view from the balcony

My husband and I needed a last minute hotel for the night, and this hotel looked pretty decent from the outside. Unfortunately, the inside did not match the outside. The room was full of flies (we had to trap the flies behind the curtain by closing the drapes), and we saw a couple of black bugs in our bed, but the worst part was the smell… musty, dirty, pee kind of smell. It was just awful! We paid $ 300 for one night… are you kidding me??? What a mistake! Please don’t make the same mistake we made. The smell is still in my mind and makes me sick to my stomach. We would have gone somewhere else, but had no choice, as many hotels were fully booked due to the Memorial Day weekend. Save your money (and nose) and stay away!

The first room i got into is full of flys on the roof, so the front desk changed another room for me. After then, the other room doesn’t look clean at all and i also caught a 2 inches spider on the floor. The price is not worth at all if it’s long weekend holiday.

A bit pricey, but relatively less expensive than other nearby hotels. Room was clean, had fridge. We had very picturesque view out of our window!

I was actually pleasantly surprised by this accommodation. I was a little worried considering how inexpensive it was, but compared to some well know chain hotels that I have paid a lot more for this place was actual pretty nice. It is not luxurious for sure, but it was clean and the staff were friendly and helpful. The one tv channel we wanted to watch did not work, but all in all we enjoyed our one night here considering there are not too many good options that do not cost a lot near Hearst Castle.

Not a place to stay. Couches were broken and very dirty. Bathrooms and Toilet were very small for 6 ft. Tall person. Not going to stay there again.

Make sure to bring lots of bottle water because the water is salty. Room was clean, very stuffy. No A/​C

This is really 1.5 star, but Unilocal doesn’t offer that option.
If I could write a review for the general San Simeon/​Cambria area, I would first advise against visiting during the holidays because accommodation prices are jacked up and the whole area is full of people, mostly from LA it seems (me included). As it turns out, this is the busiest time of the year for Cambria.
On the positive side, the sign for this motel is big and green and easily visible from the highway, making very easy to find at night. But once found, the reality will set in. The room will smell a little funny. If you’re unlucky your wall heater will be broken, but after a call to the front desk — from your own cell phone, unless you know how to work the cordless phone in the room because dialing «0» will not get you the front desk — and a medium to long wait, the very nice gentleman from the front desk will bring a portable heater to your room if he cannot fix the unit in the wall. The portable heater was super useful in preventing our baby from freezing to death at night. Tragedy averted. Again, I want to reiterate how nice the man at the front desk was. As for the rest of the room, the water from the bathroom faucet was salty (maybe hard water? maybe water pumped directly from the Pacific Ocean across the street?), and the temperature of the water in the shower fluctuated wildly. And careful using the towels, some of them will scratch your face. I would also recommend using gloves to operate the TV remote, but this is a given in any hotel/​motel.
I guess the jacked-​up holiday pricing skewed my expectations for a place like this, because it wouldn’t be that bad if you were paying around $ 50 a night for a room here. Final thought: if you must go to Hearst Castle and stay in San Simeon, go on a Tuesday in March.

Dirty and disgusting! Certainly not worth paying $ 183 for a partial ocean view room
There was black stuff on on the door into the bathroom. It looked like poop.
On the window seal of the bathroom there was marijuana twigs and leaves.
The shower had mold or fungus on the floor and lower walls
The bed had little black bugs and black pubic hairs. When we pulled the sheets down further we found a pair of dirty socks.
When we told the front desk they just kind of shrugged their shoulders. Especially with the leftover drugs in the room. They just did not seem to care.
Pay a few extra bucks and get a nicer hotel or you may walk out of there with bugs, a disease, fungus, bacterial infection, who knows!

Checked in one room for me and my sister, and another for my parents. The bed sheets in my parent’s room was nasty with pubic hair and black unknown substances on it. Tried to call the front desk then realized there was a cordless phone in the room with no instruction of how to call the front desk. Therefore I walked to the front desk and told them what I see in my parents room. The staff just gave me a face like «so what?», but they gave me another room.
While I thought my room was okay… I was wrong. After shower, I slip into my bed and feel my skin being itchy thinking that my skin was only too dry.
Until I see blood on my bed sheet and bed bugs… so far I caught 4 of them…
There were too many of those bugs, so I decided to talk to the front desk, and ask them to change the sheets since my sister already pass out. When the lady came and change my sheets, I also ask her to change the comforters. While she went to grab another comforter, my sister woke up, and as she got out of bed, there was adult bed bug crawling out of her bed… We really want to get another hotel, but everything was booked. Luckily, the staffs offered another room for us.
The next morning there were bumps on my skin and extremely itchy, bed bug bites. I will not recommend this hotel to anyone…
BTW the room that we had the bugs in were Rm 221. Beware if you happen to be in or around that room.

The best part about this place is having a roof over your head and the desk staff was friendly. That’s where it ends. The place is completely in need of an upgrade, rooms are musty and dirty, bathroom sink faucet literally broke off which is a first, and the room was so tiny that moving around for two adults wasn’t good. Add a small child and tiny dog and you’ve pushed the envelope. Oh the other bonuses was the distance to Hearst Castle which was aobut a 7 minute drive and they accept pets. Otherwise I would never come here again… so you get what you pay for. If I was on my own I would have slept in my car for fear of getting bed bugs. Wifi is terrible as well.

I expected much worse from a roadside motel in the middle of nowhere. But we got way more than we bargained for, though it wasn’t exactly bargain-​priced. The rooms were clean and the comforters, sheets, and furniture looked quite new. Our much-​needed heating unit was down and out, but they got it fixed in minutes. I’ve stayed at hotels that were considered higher end, but many didn’t have service as good as this.

FRAT HOUSE OR HOTEL?!! DISGUSTING!!!
The cleanliness of the room was lacking to say the least.
Upon entry, the smell of mold and stale old carpet hits you smack in the face. Kind of like old melted crayons and pencil lead. The décor was straight from the 70’s, but I had no problem overlooking that. When I walked into the bathroom, I was speechless… The bathroom was VERY dated. Old mirror, very old floor tile, light fixture etc… Then… Then I turned and looked in the shower, and I wanted to turn on my heel and walk out. There was BLACK mold in the entire shower, the ceiling, the floor. Yes, black mold! See pictures as proof. The ceiling was SO short, that my 6’4 husband had to practically duck to shower. The shower head was awkwardly to the left of the shower, and thus hard to get yourself wet, and was the size of a coffin! I was so grossed out about the mold, I didn’t want to touch the tile, or anything in the shower! DISGUSTING! I actually had to go to the grocery store in Cambria and purchase bathroom cleaner with bleach, and disinfectant to spray on the carpet. I still wore my flip flops in the shower. I was afraid to wash my kids in that bathroom or even walk around barefoot in the room! When we did walk barefoot on the carpet, our feet were DIRTY AND BROWN! I made the kids a towel walkway around the room. We looked for another hotel for the remainder of our stay, and had no luck. Such a shame, our room had pretty decent views (should mention NOT all rooms have views). I’m sure one of us walked away with some sort of fungus. Bottom line, frat house-​like disgusting bathrooms and shower, with the dirtiest carpet you can imagine. If they’d invest just a little bit in maintenance, updating and cleanliness, they’d have a decent place. Sad to say I’ll NEVER return…

I have stayed at this hotel twice now and the first time was good but the second time was even better! We came looking for a room with two queens and all they had left was a family suite that had two hotel room joined in the middle with a bathroom and a door it had two queen beds in one room and a king bed in the other the room was really big, I felt silly takeing this room because it was me my husband, a baby and a 10 year old but all the extra space was great. Its got a heated pool and that was really amazing to go swimming in especially after we froze to death from ocean and the cold wind chill. The room was really clean and had great views and right next to the hotel they have a resturant and also across the street is costal access. Only paid 130 $ for this huge room its room 201 I definitely would recommend it to anyone.

About the only thing this place has going for it is the proximity to Hearst Castle and the nice enough staff. I’d like to say it was a bargain (it is one of the cheaper hotels in town), but I’ve stayed in nicer hostels in a dorm room (in fact, EVERY hostel I’ve stayed in was nicer than this place).
— The sheets were the thinnest I’ve ever slept on — like they’d been used for decades.
— The hot water (in the tiny shower stall) was a trickle.
— The coffee pot was certainly well-​used, and had never been cleaned — it sputtered for more than 5 minutes to make about 3 cups of hot water.
— The walls and ceiling were quite thin — we could certainly hear all our neighbors.
Did I mention the biker rally? You could say we had spirited neighbors. Nothing against them, but it was late and we wanted to get some sleep. The front desk had a sign stating that quiet hours (10 – 7) were strictly enforced (HA).
Thankfully, my roommate remembered that she had packed earplugs. But for $ 95 I shouldn’t have had to use them!
— Loose toilet seat — I went to hand tighten the screw (easy enough) and my had came back with muck on it — Gross!
— No heat or extra blanket — it’s still cool in April, folks
— Carpet tacks at door frame — watch your bare feet!
— If you’re gonna leave only a small roll of tp on the spindle, then leave an extra roll!
— The curtain backing in the front window was worn /​torn, letting in light.
— Wifi very weak (Room 104)
Comfortable enough bed
Nice employee in lobby
Restaurant exists (service ends at 10). Karaōke Friday and Saturday nights. Went well with the biker crowd.

The best part of this overnight stay is the checkout.
Let me sum up the reasons I’m not returning here again: Crummy bathroom that smells. Seems like the grouts and tiles haven’t been treated since the 70s. The shower stall is small and dirty with a fairly strong smell of mold. You wouldn’t trust to put your feet on the floor or let any of your skin touch the shower walls lest you pick up a waterborne disease in there, or something. The carpet is dark green and looked like it could use shampoo work. Wifi did NOT work. No microwave.
I don’t mind the very dated fixtures and furniture — I suppose they have plenty of guests who appreciate 70s décor, but I have a problem with springy mattress dressed with linens that look like they could use another cycle time or two in the washer.
This was a last minute reservation with little to no planning. We were lucky to have a room to spend the night, but never again coming back. I would not recommend this to anyone :/

Nice place to be here. You can hardly view the sea from the sea facing rooms/​balcony though. That was a disappointment for me. To reach the sea you have to go across the CA1 street. So, be very careful.
Hearst castle is not very far from there. So, are some other small attractions.

First off the main reason I came here was because of the price, it is almost half the price of anywhere else around here. Although there are a few things that are missing out of your traditional hotel room, nothing beats the quality and price of this place.
I origionally got a boring room by the poolside but after officially checking in the following morning (we arrived after 11, our key was in an envelope with a map of the place) the front desk offered an ocean view king bed room. Ofcourse we were more then happy to move over.
Overall I had no complaints and considering I am very picky that is saying a lot. The only thing I would be worried about is staying here in the summer, I did not see an ac nor any vents besides a little wall heater (which didnt work, must be shut off depending on season?) So I am assuming there is no AC. So depend on the ocean keeping you cool.
PS. If you leave your windows open at night you can fall asleep to the soothing sounds of ocean waves crashing. (I loved it)
To sum it all up– cheap, clean, hospitable.

Be happy and unburden your thoughts– the room was clean. Clean sheets, soft, not firm pillow top spring mattress and cushy headboard to lean up against. This helps for tv watching and bed gymnastics. Flat screen tv is very nice, newer, and the room is tastefully decorated — starfish lamp, art, coffeemaker. The mini fridge runs loud, but what’s important was the hot shower, clean towels, & bottle water for the next morning. AAA discount too.

The holidays are upon us! That means more days off, yay! So we decided to take advantage of the long weekend and head up north for a little road trip to SLO and the Hearst Castle.
I found this place from a quick Google search and ended up booking it through Expedia (btw, they offer $ 25 off your first hotel booking with them if you subscribe to their moble notifications, but you can always opt out of them at anytime too). So for a 2 queen bed room, it came out to $ 100 total including all fees. Not bad considering its close proximity to the Castle (only 3 miles, or 8 minutes!).
Room was not bad, kind of like Ramada-​quality. I like that the two beds were kind of two areas of the room that was semi-​divided, rather than right next to each other. There is a 24-​hour little gym with weights, machines, treadmills and elliptical machines (we actually worked out for about 20 minutes). There is also a pool but it was too cold to go in.
There’s also a little restaurant on the premises and they have karaōke and drinking on Friday and Saturday nights. We saw the famous «Elvis» there, and he was very sweet and kept telling us and everyone else that he was happy to have us there and thanking us for coming. Also, there is a liquor store in walking distance, too.
I’d stay here again. Maybe next time we’ll walk down to the beach too, since it’s pretty much right across the road.